Pennbury - The real questions.

1.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 5th Oct 2008

Cllr. Gary Hunt wants an open and honest debate on Pennbury

Cllr. Gary Hunt, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Knighton writes in the local press about the burning issue of Pennbury;

'Having had the pleasure of sitting though an entirely facile debate last week in the council chamber of Leicester city council the real questions about Pennbury are at least becoming a little clearer.

These questions are not about the planning, environmental or desirability issues but are far more fundamental.

Question 1. Why does the Labour administration want to support the building of a vast new estate on private land to the south east of the city when the city has land it owns to the north west of the city on which it would make money, build in the area where new jobs are already being created and that has some of the infrastructure already in place.

Question 2. Having signed up for a 'growth point bid' from the government where millions of money of government grants are available to build in the Leicester / Derby / Nottingham triangle area - why have the Labour run administration turned there back on this in favour of farmland in private ownership.

Question 3. Why is the city even considering a deal with the private developers of Pennbury to put all the 'affordable housing' in the city leaving the up market private housing to be build many miles away in splendid isolation.

Question 4. Why does the Labour run administration keep running away from a serious debate and keep postponing briefings for councillors with genuine interests. It was only because of an opposition motion that we had a debate at all last week, the administration still plans to bring the item to council a matter of days before the close of the planning representations period when no serious changes will be possible.

Question 5. By not building the new development to the north west of the city we will be condemning the city to yet more traffic flow as the residents and service vehicles use the city as the logical route from motorway, rail link and airport growth area through to the new town in the south west - not really the ecological icon it is trumpeted to be.

These are the 5 questions I would like good, professional & serious answers to before Pennbury is decided by the council - make no mistake we have to build houses, and the employment zones to go with them and many of us put years of hard work into getting them in the right place and with the right infrastructure - as yet we have seen nothing that equates to clear, impartial and honest reasoning behind Pennbury.'

Gary Hunt

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Knighton Ward